Truck scrappage scheme criticised
At the beginning of the year, the then Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) introduced a scrapping premium for trucks. The aim was to reduce pollutants on Germany's roads. Was the venture crowned with success?
The board spokesman at the Federal Association of Road Haulage, Logistics and Disposal considers the scrapping premium a complete success. Because thanks to the bonus, there are now far fewer dirty trucks. And in fact, more than 90 per cent of diesel trucks in freight transport in Germany are state of the art. Diesel technology, mind you. And that is precisely the criticism.
It was hoped that many more companies would switch to electric trucks. Because according to the Federal Environment Agency, even new diesel vehicles have only a small positive effect on pollutant emissions. Too little for the 158 million euros that the federal government has invested in this. Member of Parliament Matthias Gastel (Greens) had criticised the Ministry of Transport from the beginning for not stipulating that the trucks be replaced by electric-powered models. Thus, the success would remain mediocre.
But the replacement by electric vehicles would probably have failed in reality. Dirk Engelhardt of the Bundesverband Güterkraftverkehr Logistik (Federal Association of Road Haulage and Logistics) emphasises that diesel drivers would have liked to invest in electric vehicles, but the technology was lacking and medium-sized companies could not afford it. At the moment, the demand for electric trucks is simply too high and the supply of powerful trucks too low. There is also still too little supply of other alternative fuels, such as CNG and hydrogen, for freight transport.
The Federal Environment Agency assumes that enough such trucks will be available in a few years. Then, however, many would not immediately decommission their trucks, which have now been replaced thanks to the premium, in order to switch to electric vehicles.
So it will be some time before the emissions of diesel trucks are reduced to such an extent that we can do without environmental zones and the associated driving bans. However, as the environmental zones become stricter and stricter and many countries, such as the Netherlands, want to ban diesel completely from their cities from 2025, many transport companies will be forced to switch to electric sooner.A